Jejunal stricture in a premature infant: Is cytomegalovirus the causative pathogen or a superinfection?

Abstract

Cytomegalovirus infection can cause gastrointestinal disease, especially in immunocompromised patients and premature infants. In the neonatal period, however, gastrointestinal involvement is infrequent. A case of cytomegalovirus enteritis and jejunal stricture in a preterm neonate is presented. The diagnosis was established after the histopathology of the surgical specimen demonstrated the presence of cytomegalovirus inclusion bodies. Every neonatal gastrointestinal cytomegalovirus infection case has been described in the literature as a necrotizing enterocolitis-like illness, but none of them clearly identifies whether cytomegalovirus was the pathogen responsible for causing necrotizing enterocolitis or whether cytomegalovirus occured as an infection during the course of necrotizing enterocolitis.